Want to lead the market? Transform your business with cloud modernization

Whether you’re a startup that wants to scale quickly or a multinational looking to streamlining operations, you can’t escape talk about moving to the cloud.

Business expectations – innovation, faster time to market, more efficient but less costly operations, customer satisfaction, productivity and more – are increasingly the drivers of corporate digital transformation, which includes migrating to the cloud. The result is that cloud modernization is now a fundamental part of how organizations think about their business infrastructure.

This was evident in a recent IDC webinar featuring Brent Flint, Head of Enterprise Applications and Cloud, Middle East and Africa, at NTT DATA and Nazia Pillay, Head of Partner Ecosystem, Middle East and Africa South, at SAP.

Why organizations are choosing cloud

First, what is cloud modernization? It’s the process of moving an organization’s IT infrastructure to cloud-based environments. Cloud modernization also includes moving on-premises applications to the cloud, adopting cloud-native technologies and updating applications to take full advantage of cloud capabilities.

Cloud computing is easier to scale up or down as business demands change, and organizations that have migrated to the cloud can adapt more quickly to new opportunities or changes in the market. There are also cost efficiencies that benefit the bottom line.

“More and more, we’re hearing that it’s business expectations that are driving the digital transformation journey, and the need is very present for CIOs to align with and meet those business expectations,” said webinar host Jonathan Tullett, Research Manager: IT Services at IDC Sub-Saharan Africa.

How cloud modernization works

Cloud modernization typically begins with a comprehensive assessment of your current IT landscape. This includes evaluating your existing applications, infrastructure and processes to identify areas that can benefit from cloud migration.

The next step is to develop a strategic plan that outlines the migration path, including which applications will be moved to the cloud, the type of cloud environment (public, private, or hybrid) best suited to your organization and the timeline for migration.

Once the plan is in place, the actual migration begins. This involves rehosting your applications in the cloud or refactoring them to be cloud-native and make better use of cloud services. Throughout this process, data integrity and security are key.

Then, once the migration has been completed, continuous cloud optimization is necessary to ensure that your cloud environment remains aligned with your business goals.

• ALSO READ → 8 essential ingredients of successful cloud-native modernization

What to get right in cloud modernization

When you’re drawing up your cloud-modernization roadmap, which should include timelines, milestones and key performance indicators to measure your success, consider the following key aspects flagged during the IDC webinar:

• Get executive buy-in and support: Without buy-in from your organization’s senior leadership, a cloud-modernization project can stall or fail. Communicate the business value of this process early on to secure commitment from executives and address their concerns.
• Implement change management: Resistance to change exists in all organizations. Change-management strategies – including clear communication, training, and involving your key IT and management stakeholders in decision-making – help to mitigate this risk. As Nazia Pillay from SAP noted: “Change management is about the fact that we are fundamentally changing the way the business is doing business … and on top of that there’s a technology change that’s going to happen.”
• Consider the quality of your data: If you’re moving to a new house, why would you take along broken furniture? Poor data quality can hinder the success of your cloud migration, as legacy data models may not be compatible with modern cloud environments. So, assess and clean your data first, and plan to validate data integrity during the migration.
• Assess your skill and capacity needs: Many organizations face a shortage of skills and capacity to manage cloud environments. Partnering with an experienced service provider like NTT DATA is the most straightforward way to supplement your internal resources and access the expertise and resources you need – including proven cloud methodologies, tools and frameworks.
• Prioritize security: Moving to a cloud environment can expose your organization to new security vulnerabilities. Implementing robust security measures, including encryption, access control and regular security audits, is essential to protect your sensitive data and remain compliant with regulatory requirements.

Also, there’s no need to rush your cloud modernization. Rather than attempting a big-bang migration, consider a phased approach. Start with less critical applications and gradually move on to more complex systems. Use automation tools for testing, deployment and monitoring to work more efficiently and reduce the risk of human error.

SAP and NTT DATA collaborate for cloud success

When IDC asked CIOs two years ago how long it would take for the business to demand a return on their digital investments, more than half of the respondents said they had more than two years. When they were asked the same question this year, half of the respondents said they had only 12 to 24 months – a challenge that’s nearly impossible to overcome without the right partnerships to help them innovate at speed, said Jonathan during the webinar.

At NTT DATA, we work closely and strategically with SAP to make cloud modernization easy and efficient for our clients.

SAP provides robust cloud-based enterprise resource planning solutions such as RISE with SAP and GROW with SAP, which are designed to support your organization during cloud modernization. As an SAP Global Strategic Service Partner, we complement these offerings with our full-stack expertise spanning multicloud management, application modernization, digital transformation and more.

Nazia explained that SAP provided their partners with training and certifications to keep them informed of the latest technologies. “We run promotions when it comes to certifications to ensure that we are pushing the most up-to-date training to the consultants,” she said.

SAP also encourages their partners to put together “packages” that often comprise both the SAP software implementation itself and the SAP partner’s value-adding intellectual property.

Making cloud modernization easy

NTT DATA and SAP’s holistic approach to cloud modernization starts with a discovery process to assess a client’s current environment before we develop a tailored cloud migration strategy that covers data integrity and security as well as post-migration support, all aligned with the client’s business goals.

“A large part of the cloud-modernization journey starts with proper planning and having a vision. That entails not only getting the executive support of the organization that you’re engaging with but also having a common vision between SAP, NTT DATA as the integration partner, and the client,” said Brent.

For example, the Royal Eswatini Sugar Corporation, a major sugar producer in Southern Africa, partnered with SAP and NTT DATA to modernize their IT infrastructure with an SAP S/4HANA public-cloud migration.

By moving to the cloud, they reduced their capital costs, improved operational efficiency and positioned themselves for growth in new markets, said Rob Coombe, Group IT Manager, Royal Eswatini Sugar Corporation, during the IDC webinar.

He added that NTT DATA’s expertise in cloud services and SAP’s robust cloud platforms enabled a smooth and successful digital transformation.

“There were some key principles that we laid down,” he said, “and one of them was that we would not have a big-bang approach. We would not have one system today and a new system tomorrow. We moved into a transformative journey over time. We decided to stick with SAP and then needed to know where to go – on-premises, public cloud, private cloud? We then involved NTT DATA and they helped us come up with the right decision for our business at that point of time.”

• ALSO READ → NTT DATA’s PhaseCONVERT eases SAP S/4HANA Cloud migration

Build a strong foundation

Cloud modernization is a critical initiative for organizations looking to stay competitive. If you make the effort to understand the process and follow best practices, you will create new opportunities for growth and innovation and deliver value to your customers.

Working with SAP and NTT DATA provides a strong foundation for achieving these goals.